Confirmed: The U.S. Still Uses Floppy Disks to Run Its Nuclear Program

In a 2014 episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver, America's foremost news satirist/investigative reporter, highlighted just how careless the United States is with its 4,000 nuclear weapons. Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, Oliver's segment detailed past egregious errors—including how two atomic bombs were accidentally dropped over North Carolina in 1961—and the continued shortcomings in regard to handling the atomic arsenal. One of the most frightening details: the fact that military uses floppy disks to control its nuclear program. Floppy. Disks.

Two years later, a new report has us wanting to duck and cover because it turns out that U.S. Department of Defense STILL uses floppy disks to control its nuclear program. (And you thought your friend who insists on keeping her iPhone 4 was bad.)

According to the report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (aptly titled "Federal Agencies Need to Address Aging Legacy Systems"), the Pentagon not only still uses the outdated technology to house information coordinating intercontinental ballistic missiles, tanker support aircraft, and nuclear bombers, they use the most antiquated version of it to do so. Because the computer systems used by the Department of Defense date back to the 1970s, these records are kept on system-compatible eight-inch floppy disks. This type of storage was already out of date by the end of that decade, as smaller 3.5- to 5.25-inch non-floppy disks became the norm before being replaced by the CD in the 1990s.

If it seems wild that the government didn't act to update its technology in the wake of Oliver's scathing report, consider this: The report indicates that government departments spend more than $60 billion annually to maintain these antiquated technologies.

Fortunately, these outdated practices are unlike to continue for much longer: According to the GAO, the Pentagon plans to update its computer system by the end of 2017 and, in doing so, join the rest of the world in the 21st century.